Latest Stories

The myths of outsourcing

Outsourcing involves tax preparation, not data entry.

GET READY FOR BUSY SEASON

Video transcript:

So some of the myths that we hear all the time, and the basic understanding that firms need to understand before they outsource, would be as follows: Number one, you don’t need to outsource 100% of your work. Most firms are going to outsource 10% to 20% of their tax returns in maybe the first year and then continue to grow from there. Very rarely will you see firms outsourcing more than 50% or 60%. This is a strategy to deal with a percentage of the returns and take care of the work compression during typical time of year that you need to deal with in the busy season and then again in the fall. The second deals with the quality that’s coming back. This [outsourcing] profession has been around for 15 years from Big Four down to sole practitioners and third parties. The experience within these practices is real. You have—the majority of our supervisors have four to eight years of experience and we have got people that have been with us for 15 years preparing tax returns. So understanding that this is tax preparation and not data entry is absolutely critical. The third and maybe most important is firms still maintain control of their work. They still own the responsibility for those returns, and they have control over that. They are getting the preparation done. They still own the review, the value-added services, the consulting and will always be owning that return before they deliver back to their client.